Sunday morning Ming and I drove from Seattle to Panorama (east on the 90 and then north on the 95 once we got to Idaho - about an eleven hour drive) and late Sunday night we met up with the Gord's crew. We then spent five solid days riding down Panorama (1100 foot elevation drop for the chair we were riding). The first day I rode on my '99 Rocky Mountain Blizzard, a hard tail with only a few inches of travel. Needless to say my first few runs down I really impressed all those on their hard core downhill bikes but once we moved from blues to blacks to double blacks I started to crash more and more. So after the first day I retired the Blizzard and rented a serious downhill bike with lots and lots of front and rear travel and all of sudden I could ride anything and everything (with the exception of the crazy ass wood stunts).

Wednesday it poured but that didn't stop a few of us from riding. It was a hell of day and at the end we were so muddy that we hosed each other down and I then proceeded to get into the shower with all my gear on (for this trip I bought full body armour and a full face helmet (my gear is probably worth more than my Blizzard :) ).

In the evenings after biking we would hot tub, BBQ on the large patio, and then hit the only bar. The bar proved to be very busy on Monday, it was staff night, but subsequent nights it was quite dead. Panorama is no Whistler - it's a family resort. The really nice thing about mountain biking is that the lift doesn't open until 10am so there's no pressure to get the 'first run'. Though two mornings we did wake up a bit earlier and did a cross country ride along the river (here the Blizzard really showed off).

Right now Ming and I are headed back to Seattle. We're about two and a half hours out and needless to there's not much to do except watch the mile markers go by. Go little Neon go!
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